


Uncertainty

by theLiterator



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Undercover, Vignette, introspective, silent friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-29
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-02-23 03:18:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2532140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theLiterator/pseuds/theLiterator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The sea is cold and dark when it embraces him.</i>
</p><p>Kaldur is alone and he cannot trust anyone, except that now he is not, and now he can.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uncertainty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Crowoxy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowoxy/gifts).



> Wrote this to make a friend finish studying. Succeeded marvelously. Previously posted on tumblr (never thought I'd type that, yet, here we are.)

He had thought, at the start of this mission, to return to the sea. He had chosen the surface world, of course, but the sea was his childhood and his home and it called to him, most days.

They did not return to the sea. They spent their time locked away from it in tiny steel submersible vessels, with his father smiling proudly at him, and Kaldur barely able to resist that constant yearning for the cold, dark open water surrounding them, and that is where Artemis finds him, her first day there.

She stares out the porthole, and she doesn’t shudder or flinch, and because she is Artemis he does not know if it is because she does not fear the crushing depths or if it is because of her profound self control.

Her hand slips into his and he leans forward, letting his forehead rest against the hull plating, letting his father see his sheer exhaustion through one of the innumerable cameras onboard. He has already expressed his approval of Huntress in several small ways, and so revealing vulnerability to her, an untrustworthy stranger, will not be the disaster in his father's eyes (disaster to the mission) it could have been.

Her eyes have always been the stormy grey of a still sea surface just before a squall, and now, here, he is the only one who knows that. He pulls away from the unceasing support of the wall and instead catches her gaze, trying to let her know that she is not as profoundly alone as he feels.

She smiles and checks the blade at her hip, then draws him away.

He leaves behind him thoughts of the sea all around but not touching him, and thoughts of the quagmire of what remains of the original team (is it his fault? Hers? Do they yet remain a team?), and follows her while the red lights of the cameras watch steadily, unflinching.

His father has expressed his approval of Huntress, so he forgets the cameras.

She is not a creature of this realm, so the disconnect of being submerged but not submersed does not register for her, he assumes, until they reach the docking bay and the doors with their force-shielding, until she palms the switch to open them and to let mere energy hold back the might of the sea.

She smiles at him, small and secret and still.

"I’ll stand guard," she promises, and he wonders that she has to say it aloud for him to believe it. She may be Huntress, but he cannot see that. She is Artemis, and he should trust her to stand guard.

But he would not trust himself to stand guard, and maybe that is it.

The sea is cold and dark when it embraces him, and her form flickers and wavers through the refraction of its depths, and Artemis is armed with blades now and not her bow, and she is disguised from friend and foe alike.

**Author's Note:**

> So, that happened. *hands* Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
